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Spain and UK strike reciprocal Brexit deal on voting rights

MADRID — Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said Monday that Madrid and London have agreed to grant electoral rights in local elections after Brexit to British residents in Spain and Spanish residents in the U.K.

The reciprocal agreement will be signed January 21 and will grant British residents in Spain and Spanish residents in the U.K. the right to vote and stand as candidates in municipal elections after Britain leaves the EU.

“Bilateral agreements between Spain and the U.K. will guarantee that Spaniards who’re living there and Britons here will maintain all of their rights, even the right to vote in municipal elections,” Borrell told reporters.

The pact will be formally announced this week by a senior Spanish official and the British ambassador in Spain, Simon Manley.

“Spain and the U.K. are finalizing the negotiation of an agreement on the reciprocal recognition of the active and passive right of suffrage,” reads a statement on the Spanish government website, which was published on Monday.

It also states that the goal is for the agreement to come into effect before the May local ballot in Spain, meaning British people should be able to vote.

“We are close to reaching an agreement with the Spanish government on a reciprocal agreement to grant electoral rights in local elections following our exit. This would be the first such arrangement, and we will be looking to agree similar deals with other member states," said a spokesperson for the British Embassy in Madrid.

"In a show of good faith, and while we pursue these bilateral agreements, the U.K. government has confirmed that EU citizens in the U.K. will be able to vote in the May 2019 elections and if elected, will be able to serve their full term," the spokesperson added.

British residents in the EU — and European citizens in the U.K. — will lose their electoral rights in local ballots after March 29 no matter the kind of Brexit. The Withdrawal Agreement struck between the EU and the U.K. (but yet to be ratified) does not include extending those rights, even for the standstill transition period.

British people — both those in the U.K. and in the EU — will also lose their electoral rights in European parliamentary elections.

Some 240,000 British people are currently living in Spain, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics, which makes Spain the largest EU destination for British nationals. Around 150,000 Spaniards live in the U.K.

Local media reports in Spain estimate there are about four dozen local councilors of British nationality serving in office in different municipalities, particularly around the coast, where many British people live.

Spain has bilateral agreements in place with 12 other countries — Norway, New Zealand and various Latin American countries, among others — to allow their citizens to vote in municipal elections in Spain and vice-versa.

The news about the agreement between Madrid and London comes as the Spanish government is stepping up preparations for Brexit, including a no-deal scenario that Foreign Minister Borrell has said would be a “catastrophe.”

Borrell said on Monday that Madrid is making legal and logistic preparations for Brexit — as well as providing public information. A decree to be approved by the government at the beginning of February (and later by parliament) will include regulations to be activated only in case of a no-deal Brexit.

This article has been updated.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated when Josep Borrell made the announcement.